Salinas homicide victim donates organs

A Salinas homicide victim donated his organs this week at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center to help save the life of another, family members said.

Devante Nicolas Arias, 19, was washing his white Honda outside a friend's house on the 1000 block of Garner Ave. on Friday when two men walked up and shot him in the head, police Officer Miguel Cabrera said.

Emergency responders said Arias was conscious and breathing when they arrived, and the teen was airlifted in a helicopter to a trauma center. Arias was placed on life support and pronounced deceased on Sunday.

The teenager's family members said Arias donated his organs Tuesday night.

"He was truly a good kid. He was hard-working and he had a very good heart," Arias' aunt said. "His pride was that little white Honda that he bought. He would spend hours cleaning his car and that’s just what he was doing the day he was shot."

"He donated his organs so that someone else may live."

Salinas' 18th homicide of 2012 happened two days before a double homicide happened in another violent crime-plagued city, Oakland.

On Monday, Oakland authorities released the names of two teenage girls who were shot to death on Sunday during an especially violent weekend.

Bobbie Sartain, 16, and Raquel Gerstel, 15, were found dead in East Oakland and were Oakland's 114th and 115th homicides of 2012.

No arrests were made in Oakland's Sunday homicides nor Salinas' Friday homicide.